Arrest of Francis 'Two Gun' Crowley

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Thursday, March 24, 2016

On this date in 1931, Andrew D'Amato,the twenty-four year old proprietor of The Bible Club,
a Harlem speakeasy, was put on the spot.
Three bullets had been fired into his skull and then a
tablecloth was wrapped around his head to prevent a bloody mess. His body was
then loaded into a car, driven outside of the city and tossed out near
Mt. Vernon where a passing milkman found him early in the morning.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Ninety-nine years ago today, Mafia man Joseph "Joe Chuck" Nazzaro was
lured to Yonkers by his "friends" under the pretext of killing one of
their own. This was a lie however because Navarro was the one on the
spot. The four men were seen walking down the street at 10:00pm when the
supposed victim complained of a stomach ache and fell behind. When he
was in the rear he pulled out a pistol and fired into Nazzaro's back.
The remaining gangsters took out their guns and fired into the doomed
hoodlum as well. In an attempt to obliterate his identity the killers
dragged the dead man onto some street car tracks. A car came along and
ran Nazzaro over and dragged him for about a hundred feet. Although he
was badly mangled (it took a crew about a half hour to remove "Joe
Chuck" from the front of the car) his finger prints were still intact
and he was properly indentified.

Monday, March 14, 2016

On March 14, 1930 twenty-nine year old William "Baron" Simpson was added
to the list of murder victims in Brooklyn's White Hand* territory when
his body was found in an alleyway leading from Furman Street to pier 16
on the East River. Someone had come up behind him and placed a .38 to
the back of his head and pulled the trigger. Although the murder took
place at around noon next to a tin can factory with two hundred
employees that were on lunch break there were no witnesses.
"Baron"
was the boss of a small group of dock workers and had a reputation as a
fierce street fighter. According to his brother, "Whitie" Simpson,
"Baron" had gotten into an argument with three men at a near by pier
about an hour before the murder. The argument turned into a fistfight
and "Baron" proceeded to savagely beat all three men until they ran
away. Simpson was last seen, alone, turning into the alleyway in which
he was found a short time later.
Even with the story about the fight
with the three men, police stated that they believed that Simpson was
another in the long line of Irish thugs murdered in the unending battle
for leadership of the dock rackets.

Monday, March 7, 2016

On this date in 1927 Sam Raplansky, a thirty-year old member of the Madison Street Boys, was hanging out at the mobs HQ, the
Madison Street Boys club. At about 10:00 p.m. he left for a
while but returned around midnight.

At that time the club was
crowded with various gang members including his brother Harry.
While in the hallway somebody came up to Sam and shot him in the face
twice and once in the body.
Rushing into the hallway, Harry and other gang members found Sam and
carried him outside to a cab for a rushed trip to the hospital. All was
for naught however as
Samuel had been killed instantly.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

On this date back in 1929 a man was walking in a field near what was
known as the
Somerville-Clinton Highway in Whitehouse, New Jersey when he saw what
he thought to be a pile of clothes near a clump of pine trees. [Long
time readers of DGIS have probably already figured out what it was].
Investigating, he made the grisly discovery that it was a frozen DGIS
who had been shot in the left temple three times.

Police
identified the dead man as Frank "Blubber" Devlin and figured that he
had been "taken for a ride" roughly forty-eight hours earlier. The
condition of his pants and coat showed that he had been dumped from a
car and dragged to his resting spot by the pine trees.

"Legs"
Diamond was credited with killing Devlin although it was never proved.
Revenge was given as the reason because Devlin, supposedly on orders
from Arnold Rothstein, was sent to Denver, Colorado with fellow
gangsters Eugene Moran and Joe Piteo, to kill Legs' brother Eddie who
was convalescing there from with tuberculosis. [Moran and Piteo were
definitely on the hit team. There was a third man but as of yet he
hasn't been positively identified]

Devlin had an
extensive record dating back to the September 6,1921 murder of Walter
Vogel with whom he shot it out with at the Transfer saloon. Since that
time police said that he had been involved with Owney Madden's gang as
well as keeping busy as a robber. When he left his home for the last
time on February 6, he had three indictments against him from the
previous year, one for assault and robbery, one for robbery and one
for grand larceny. Where he was going that February 6, is unknown
but after he said good-bye to his mother and brother he went to the
bank, withdrew $1000 and disappeared.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

John "Spider" Murtha, called "The toughest man in Brooklyn" by
detectives, was gunned down by killers from Murder Inc. on this date in
1935. Born circa 1898 Murtha dubbed himself "Spider" while a
featherweight boxer in his youth but it was his exploits outside of the
ring that made the plug-ugly an infamous Brooklyn character. It was said
that Murtha enjoyed being pointed out in taverns as a "Cop beater" and
that he never carried a gun choosing instead to rely on a razor or any
weapon he could improvise out of broken beer bottle or mug.

The
boys from Murder Inc. caught up with Spider at 10:30 a.m. when he and
his girlfriend, Marie Nestfield, were returning from an all night
outing, they had just exited a hotel when the two gunmen quietly walked
up behind them. As one of them pushed Marie aside the other one
exclaimed, "Now we got you Spider!" and the two men fired a total of
five shots into Murtha hitting him twice in the head and three times in
the chest. "Spider" stumbled for a moment then collapsed dead next to an
elevated subway pillar.

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About Me

Author of: On The Spot: Gangland Murders in Prohibition New York City 1930-1933, Hollywood on the Spot: Crimes Against the Early Movie Stars, Legs Diamond: Gangster. Gangster City: The History of the New York Underworld 1900-1935. Notorious New Yorkers: Two Gun Crowley. Notorious New Yorkers: The Bobbed Haired Bandit. Notorious New Yorkers: Vivian Gordon.